The lessons of the pandemic and global warming
Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2020 10:02 pm
I've been staying indoors in San Francisco, where the AQI is 189. Mill City, Oregon has a AQI of 647. What we are breathing is the destruction of the earth's lungs, both here and in the Amazon. Plumes of smoke reaching 55,000 feet, unknown in human history.
Look at a Global 3D map of Air quality. Plants absorb CO² . Fewer forests, more CO² . Look at the Amazon an the Pacific Northwest. This is the destruction of the Planet's ability to absorb CO² .
The temperature in Greenland has risen 3° centigrade since 1980. A chunk of the ice shelf, the size of Manhattan, broke off this week.
There are 5 cyclones in the North Atlantic for the second time in history.
A virus crosses into the human genome in Wuhan, China. Six months later, the world is infected.
What do all of these data points have to do with one another? They show the inter-connectivity of life on this planet. The nature of this inter-connectivity does not recognize borders. It does not recognized races. It does not recognize economic systems. We are all connected on a biological level on this planet.
And humanity, which organizes itself into Nation-states, has institutions that are not suited for the paradigm of global inter-connectivity. Our human hubris tells us that our economic systems are sacrosanct, rather than the biological system that supports us all. We think we are saving the economic institutions, but the economy does not exist without a healthy human genome. And humanity's response to both Global Warming and Covid-19 show that our consciousness does not correctly perceive the relationship between man and our biological underpinnings, upon which the safety of our human genome rests.
After Hiroshima, man's perception of warfare changed. People began to recognize that warfare could permanently affect the planet. We have not disarmed, but have realized Winston Churchill's observation about the arms race: All you're going to do is make the rubble bounce. A realization that global warfare was a zero-sum game with no winner.
Now we are being asked to assimilate the reality of our biological inter-dependence and our position in the biosphere. Humanity, instead of understanding the connectivity, is playing a zero-sum game with itself. We are not evolving.
Look at a Global 3D map of Air quality. Plants absorb CO² . Fewer forests, more CO² . Look at the Amazon an the Pacific Northwest. This is the destruction of the Planet's ability to absorb CO² .
The temperature in Greenland has risen 3° centigrade since 1980. A chunk of the ice shelf, the size of Manhattan, broke off this week.
There are 5 cyclones in the North Atlantic for the second time in history.
A virus crosses into the human genome in Wuhan, China. Six months later, the world is infected.
What do all of these data points have to do with one another? They show the inter-connectivity of life on this planet. The nature of this inter-connectivity does not recognize borders. It does not recognized races. It does not recognize economic systems. We are all connected on a biological level on this planet.
And humanity, which organizes itself into Nation-states, has institutions that are not suited for the paradigm of global inter-connectivity. Our human hubris tells us that our economic systems are sacrosanct, rather than the biological system that supports us all. We think we are saving the economic institutions, but the economy does not exist without a healthy human genome. And humanity's response to both Global Warming and Covid-19 show that our consciousness does not correctly perceive the relationship between man and our biological underpinnings, upon which the safety of our human genome rests.
After Hiroshima, man's perception of warfare changed. People began to recognize that warfare could permanently affect the planet. We have not disarmed, but have realized Winston Churchill's observation about the arms race: All you're going to do is make the rubble bounce. A realization that global warfare was a zero-sum game with no winner.
Now we are being asked to assimilate the reality of our biological inter-dependence and our position in the biosphere. Humanity, instead of understanding the connectivity, is playing a zero-sum game with itself. We are not evolving.
I've been out of work for six months. I have too much time on my hands. But it seems to me that human beings are experiencing 2 trials that point to our dysfunctional way of placing our economic systems above our biological ones.Nikos Kazantzakis wrote:Blowing through heaven and earth, and in our hearts and the heart of every living thing, is a gigantic breath - a great Cry - which we call God. Plant life wished to continue its motionless sleep next to stagnant waters, but the Cry leapt up within it and violently shook its roots: "Away, let go of the earth, walk!" Had the tree been able to think and judge, it would have cried, "I don't want to. What are you urging me to do? You are demanding the impossible!" But the Cry, without pity, kept shaking its roots and shouting, "Away, let go of the earth, walk!"
It shouted this way for thousands of eons; and lo! as a result of desire and struggle, life escaped the motionless tree and was liberated.
Animals appeared - worms - making themselves at home in water and mud. "We're just fine", they said.
"We have peace and security; we're not budging!"
But the terrible Cry hammered itself pitilessly into their loins. "Leave the mud, stand up, give birth to your betters!"
"We don't want to! We can't!"
"You can't, but I can. Stand up!"
And lo! after thousands of eons, human beings emerged, trembling on their still unsolid legs.
Human beings are centaurs; their equine hoofs are planted in the ground, but their bodies from breast to head are worked on and tormented by the merciless Cry. They have been fighting, again for thousands of eons, to drag themselves, like a sword, out of their animalistic scabbard. They are also fighting - this is their new struggle - to draw themselves out of their human scabbard. The human being calls in despair, "Where can I go: I have reached the pinnacle, beyond is the abyss". And the Cry answers, "I am beyond. Stand up!"